Gavin Jewell of Redlands turning 12 on 12-1-12

It's Gavin Jewell's birthday today, and the Cope Middle School sixth-grader's mind is going in a dozen directions.

He is turning 12 on the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year of the 21st century - which is 12 backward, as if he needed any more.

And that's a lot of 12s.

"I'm excited," he said. "It's fun to think about it."

Gavin's grandmother, Sandy Johnson of Redlands, said the numerical convergence occurred to Gavin's mom, Carrie, about a year ago, and the family has been looking forward to Gavin's birthday ever since.

"We didn't think about it when he was born," said Johnson, who cares for Gavin and his sister Kaelyn and their cousins Nathan and Ethan after school. "When it came to our attention, we knew we couldn't just let it go by. It's a special day - only once per century."

Looking at another possible 12 for the lineup, Gavin said he will take a moment at noon today - he will be in Matt Klemm's English and social-studies classroom at that time - to contemplate what will be at that moment a quintet of 12s. Gavin has also heard that there is to be an announcement of his special birthday in the Cope Middle School paper. His family is taking him out to Lucille's for ribs, and then to Farrell's for ice cream and trampolining.

Gavin, the son of Mike and Carrie Johnson, is a third-generation Redlands native. His grandfather, Doug Johnson, graduated from Redlands High School, as did Gavin's mother.

In 2000, the year Gavin was born, the population of San Bernardino and Riverside counties was about 3.3 million. Some 1.6 percent of residents, or about 52,800, were babies born that year, according to www.censusscope.com. Assuming births were evenly distributed throughout the year, about 145 people, or 0.004 percent of the total population of the Inland Empire, were born on Dec. 12 in 2000 and are turning 12 today.

Many brides and grooms gravitate toward super-symmetrical anniversary dates: National retailer David's Bridal estimates more than 7,500 U.S. couples will marry today, up more than 1,400 percent from the same date last year.

Strings of numbers such as 12/12/12 tend to resonate in activities where the date is important. Geocaching hobbyists, for example, hide logbooks at particular geographical coordinates, and other geocachers use GPS trackers to find the books and sign and date them. Geocaching clubs all over the world have scheduled activities today, according to www.geocaching.com, although next year's highly anticipated 11/12/13 gets more buzz online.